Forget Me Knot
by Eleture
Summary: bloodiedbowties (and ilessthan3darrencriss) prompted: Blaine has trouble learning the choreography for "Bye, Bye, Bye" because the ropes used for the marionette illusion trigger him. Details are up to you!


**From the prompt by bloodiedbowties, via **  
ilessthan3darrencriss: Can I prompt you a prompt that bloodiedbowties came up with? Blaine has trouble learning the choreography for "Bye, Bye, Bye" because the ropes used for the marionette illusion trigger him. Details are up to you!

_**TW:**_child abuse, blangst, poor editing. Probably wouldn't recommend to someone who has triggers for bondage related situations & there may be some sexual abuse, rape triggers. For more details, message me.

**A/N: **So I'll admit I haven't seen many of the spoilers for Fued, so if you have and this is wrong - it's creative license. I have seen the original film clip a thousand times though. So there's that. I'm not terribly happy with this but it's time I got back into the blangst tag. Constructive crit would be welcome. :)

**Forget me, Knot**

_The rope that's wrapped around me is cutting through my skin, _

_And the doubts I have surrounding me are finding their way in._

_ - Melissa Etheridge, "Angels Would Fall" _

-.-.-

"Ready?"

Blaine's eyes track across to the others, already tried like marionettes in a line. They're experimentally tugging at the rigging, using it to lift their weight off the ground.

"I…" He swallows thickly trying to look anywhere other than Finn's expectant face. "Yeh, sure."

"Ok cool." Finn drags him closer. "We're just tying you guys for now, but in the actual performance they'll have wristbands and those-clip things."

Blaine lets Finn manoeuvrer him into position. The taller boy takes his wrist. If he feels it trembling lightly, Finn doesn't mention it. Instead he carefully hooks the thin rope around Blaine's wrist.

The pressure is familiar.

Blaine looks away, focuses on row of chairs before him.

It's just Glee Club.

The rope tightens as the knot closes, and Blaine's heart gives a painful thump.

-.-.-.-

_"Why are you doing this?" The rope pulls his hands together, twisting them painfully behind him; his whole body arches to accommodate the angle. _

_"Because you have to learn." Sure hands check each of the knots, following the intertwining path of the smooth rope. _

_"Let me go." He tugs at his arms experimentally, but all it does is pull the muscles in his arms, stretching his shoulders uncomfortable. _

_"I'm trying to free you." A hand caresses his cheek. _

_He's thankful to be crying, because the tears wash the lingering touch away. _

-.-.-.-

"Second hand!" Finn announces reaching across Blaine suddenly. He can't help but flinch away. "Sorry dude, I didn't realise you'd zoned out on me."

Blaine lets out a shaky laugh. "Yeh, sorry."

There's an awkward silence as Finn holds out his hand, rope looped and ready for Blaine. He hesitates for a moment more and then meekly offers his wrist.

This time he watches every loop and tries not to imagine Finn suddenly jerking him forwards. Finn won't do that.

"Is that tight enough?"

-.-.-.-

_"It's too tight, please? My fingers…" He strains up, trying to get some sort of leverage. It's been a lifetime. It feels like a lifetime. He's not sure how long he's been here, in the dark, with ropes keeping him imprisoned. _

_"I'm sorry."_

_"Then let me go?"_

_"You know I can't do that."_

_"Please."_

_There's a shuffling step closer. "Not until you've learned to be better."_

-.-.-.

"Okay, so we'll start from the top. There are a few bars of music, and when the beat starts, we've got a jump, ball-change."

There's an awkward pause before the boys all move together. Just as his feet land on the ground Blaine feels the ropes pull tighter. He can't help but pull back for a moment and his mind drifts.

-.-.-.-

_It's freezing cold. The air-conditioning is blasting out icy air and it hits his skin from every angle. The straining of his limbs in the Arctic blast makes the muscles seize and shudder. _

_"Will you promise now?"_

_"Yes, yes I swear." _

_"You're a liar Blaine, a liar and a sinner."_

_"No, no please I mean it!"_

-.-.-.-

"Blaine! Would you pay attention?" Someone yells loudly, and he finds himself confronted with a small crowd of Glee Clubbers staring at him.

"Sorry?" He offers meekly.

"It's not hard, can't you just try harder?"

-.-.-.-

_"I am trying! Please! Please I'll be better!"_

-.-.-.-

"Right, sorry, I'm just tired."

"Look, I get that you're used to being lead of the Warblers or whatever but surely you've been at McKinley long enough to have worked out that we expect everyone to earn their place here."

"Finn!" Sam cuts over Finns voice. Silence settles over them. "You okay Blaine? You look a bit pale."

Blaine nods harshly. "Fine."

"Great, pay attention then." Finn gripes, but visibly wilts under Sam's stern gaze.

-.-.-.-

_The pleading has stopping finally. Instead he closes his eyes and waits. _

_He wonders idly if he should be worried about his arms. Where they had been burning and stinging, they were now numb. _

_He lets his mind slip into sweet numbness with them, and slowly, oh-so-slowly, his eyes begin to droop. _

-.-.-.-

He lets out a half-shout in protest as his feet take a moment to catch up, but there's an _agonizing_ moment when his arms are forced to take his weight. He stumbles back upright, wavering, arms pulling down against the ropes.

"I want to go home." He breathes, tugging a little more persistently and when no one moves his can't help the way his voice pitches higher and he almost shouts, "I want to go home!"

"We're not done yet…?"

"Untie me." He tries to pull at the knots one-handed but they don't move.

"Finn, untie him."

He strains a little harder, and the ropes dig in.

-.-.-.-

_The pain of regaining circulation hits him hard, bowls him over and crashes down on top of him, forcing him away from the surface. _

_His mouth opens in silent scream, and all he can do is writhe against the loosening prison as it retracts its bloody seizure._

-.-.-.-

"Calm down, Blaine. I can't get the knots when you're-,"

He's not listening though, instead he's writing against the pull, arms bearing the brunt of his tiny weight as he tries to tear the rigging down around them.

"Blaine!"

"Untie me!"

"I'm _trying!" _

-.-.-.-

_"I'll see you tomorrow Blaine."_

_"No, please."_

_"Don't run from me love."_

_"Please, I promised it won't happen again…"_

_"I'll find you, Blaine." _

-.-.-.-

The pressure vanishes from his right arm, and instantly he shoves Finn away, pleasantly surprised that the other's aren't grouped around him until he sees the boys still roped like a sting of puppets.

His lungs flutter against the panic as he strains to free his other arm, Finn's bulking form intercepting the effort just as he's starting to lose sight of the auditorium and vanish back to the depths of that cold basement.

He heaves a sigh of relief and lets his knees buckle.

"Woah dude, I got you."

The hard wooden floor jolts him back to awareness properly. With a deep breath he nods, "Thanks Finn."

"You alright?"

Blaine hums in affirmation and then slowly pulls himself to his feet, trying not to look Finn in the eye.

"What was that about?"

"I don't like being tied up."

"Oh…Santana so owes me fifty dollars."

Blaine chokes on the air he's mercifully breathing, "I need to go."

"You can talk to us."

"I'm fine."

He doesn't head home; instead he sits in his car for longer than necessary. He's not ready to face his father, and definitely not after he's been crying.

He never knows when he'll make another mistake.

-.-.-.-

_If someone were to notice the rope burns and scars around his arms he wouldn't tell them he was punished. _

_Blaine isn't punished for making mistakes. _

_His father always tells him the best way to be better is to think about his sins. He just makes sure Blaine isn't distracted when he does. _

_He's five years old when it starts. _

-.-.-.-

He's fifteen before anyone ever sees the cracks in his mask.

Even then, he's sure he'll never tell.

—- fin —-


End file.
